State of the Loons ; Conference Champs!

Last night was an off night for the Loons, but the Nest was still lit up and rocking. The Loons organization opened up the doors and allowed season ticket holders and fans who had purchased the 10-game ticket plans to come in and watch last night's Minnesota Norsemen vs Wisborg Donuts game live on the jumbo tron. These lucky fans also had the pleasure of sitting alongside of the Loons players to watch the game.Once Minnesota winger Radulov scored early into the third to put Minnesota up 4-1 -  the Nest turned into a party. 

"We would have liked to clinch it on the ice, but It was pretty cool sharing it with the fans," commented Captain Dubois. "Also, it didn't hurt being there to hug a few of our female fans either!" Dubios said with a smile on his face and a dr. Pepper in his hand (PLD is only 20 after all).

Looking back at the past year there were a lot of memorable moments. "We faced a lot of criticism throughout the year starting with the blockbuster deal that brought us our Captain. We gave up a lot and maybe could have gotten more elsewhere, but we identified PLD as someone who not only had a ton of talent but is a leader and a player that we could build an organization around." GM Czepiel commented as he spoke with reporters. That trade was the first of MANY during the off season and throughout the season too. " Its hard taking over someone else's roster and not having the type of guys that we wanted - so a roster turnover was necessary." Czepiel continued. " We got lucky in free agency and landed a top 5 CCHL scorer in Krejci and a number 1 defenseman in Niskanen. We will need to be active and just as lucky next year. But maybe our biggest move was bringing in Sedin. 60 points in way more then we could have hoped for but his greatest value was the leadership he brought to the team and his mentoring of PLD."

The CCHL faced huge changes this year and the Loons were smart to participate in both the Summer league and the Pre season in order to find out early on what worked, what didn't and what type of players they needed to bring in. Czepiel went on " We failed a lot during the year, we thought bringing in a top player like Claude Giroux was a no brainer, but we saw immediately that he was not going to be a good fit. We also  traded away a couple of guys in Ferland and Barberio that we underestimated how important they were to us on the ice and in the locker room once they were gone. Our team went into a tailspin after they were moved, and are hopefully just now starting to emerge from." The Loons were obviously not afraid to make changes and that was crucial to their success. 

Next up are the playoffs, this should separate the men from the boys. Capeside will have the advantage of a first round bye but will lose momentum and experience. Changes will have to be made quickly if things start to go wrong or this dream season can be over very quickly.

 Looking back at our preseason predictions we picked the Loons to make the playoffs but as a 6 seed  and to lose in the first round. We have never been so happy to be wrong.

 #goLoonsgo